Islabikes appoints Dave Bowater as a Director

Children's bike brand Islabikes has appointed longtime contributing freelance designer Dave Bowater as a Director of the company.

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Children's bike brand Islabikes has appointed longtime contributor Dave Bowater as a Director of the company.

Bowater has been working alongside Isla Rowntree since the company was founded back in 2006. Having worked until recently as a freelance designer for Islabikes, Bowater has played an integral part in the company’s growth over the last ten years and the new in-house role will now see him involved in the strategic direction of the business, alongside Isla Rowntree, Tim Bundegaard-Goodall and Ed Moseley.

Bowater began his love of cycling by riding mountain bikes back in the mid nineties, and quickly began racing across a number of disciplines. He became the Espoir National Champion in cyclocross and also represented Great Britain in both mountain biking and cyclocross, until injury forced Bowater to retire from competitive cycling.

The company was started by Isla Rowntree to provide a better cycling experience for children. This remains the key focus for the company, which employs a team of 34.

Bowater said: “Children's bikes have dramatically improved over the last 10 years thanks to Isla pushing the boundaries and creating a market for high quality children’s bikes. Isla’s vision teamed with her engineering background and incredible attention to detail is what continues to drive the development of our products.”

“We have a great team here at Islabikes who are all very passionate and have a very specific skillset; from our onsite frame builder who is constantly working on research and development, through to our customer services team who pride themselves in delivering first class service,” said Bowater. He continued: “The depth of knowledge within the business has obviously grown as we have, but what's really nice is most of us are cyclists at some level or another and have a passion for riding bikes and seeing children fall in love with the sport.”

“Our bikes are lightweight and designed holistically, rather than just scaling down individual components. We design our bikes as one and look closely at how all the components interact with each other and with the rider. For us, it’s about constant improvement; we are never satisfied and this is what motivates us most as a team.”